Seven Managers in Four Years: Kulusevski’s Tottenham Whirlwind Highlights Club Chaos

Tottenham, Wednesday — When Dejan Kulusevski stepped off the plane from Turin in January 2022, the 22-year-old Swede could not have imagined that, before his 26th birthday, he would answer to seven different first-team managers. Yet that staggering reality was underlined on Wednesday by Football on TNT Sports, revealing a club in perpetual transition and a player caught in the spin cycle.

Kulusevski’s journey began under Antonio Conte, the disciplinarian who sanctioned his initial loan. Within months, Conte had departed and the reins were passed, first to assistant Cristian Stellini and then to academy graduate Ryan Mason. Ange Postecoglou arrived in summer 2023 promising a reset, but the upheaval did not end there: Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor followed in rapid succession, each inheriting a squad already fraying at the seams.

The most sobering footnote is that Kulusevski never pulled on a Spurs shirt for two of those seven bosses. A persistent injury kept him sidelined throughout Frank’s entire tenure and again during Tudor’s 44-day stay, meaning the club changed direction twice while one of its most inventive attackers could only watch from the treatment table.

Those absences were not mere footnotes in a medical report; they shaped results, undermined tactical blueprints and, ultimately, shortened managerial lifespans. Frank could not implement his preferred high-tempo press without the Swede’s ball-carrying thrust; Tudor faced the same handicap and met the same fate.

Now the spotlight turns to Roberto De Zerbi, the early favourite to become Kulusevki’s seventh gaffer. The Italian’s reputation for expansive, high-energy football dovetails with the winger’s strengths, provided the 25-year-old can regain full fitness. A dynamic, creative force on his day, Kulusevski’s availability could decide whether Spurs arrest their slide or extend the managerial merry-go-round into a fifth consecutive year.

Seven managers in four years is not a statistic any elite club should carry. For Tottenham, it is simply the latest damning number in a season already littered with them.